right-wing allies in the labour movement).
around the following demands:
programme for those already on the dole.
living to offset inflation.
that put profit before people. & labour movement. leaders.
London SE19.
SOCIALIST ACTION.
Editor: A.D. Scott really united offensive can be organised against the Tories (and their Socialist Action believes that a fighting left wing should be built * Hands off the unions! No curbs on the right to strike or picket!
* For the 35-hour week! End unemployment by work-sharing (with no loss of pay) and introduce a mass public works * Oppose all wage curbs. For wage increases tied to the cost of * Open the books of all companies claiming inability to pay a decent living wage or threatening redundancies. Nationalise those * Tax the rich not the poor. No cuts in the social services - for social spending to be tied to increases in the cost of living.
* For women's rights. For the right of all women to abortion on demand, free nurseries, equal pay and opportunity. Support NAC.
* Fight racism. Repeal all racist immigration laws. Defend the right of Black people to organise as they see fit in the community * For the right of all oppressed nations to determine their own own future - Get the troops out of Ireland now!
* For a safe environment. End nuclear reactors and base an energy strategy on coal. Explore alternative energy resources.
Socialist Action supporters, while fighting for the above demands, seek the widest possible unity of all forces in the labour movement around concrete issues. They also seek to encourage the widest democracy in the labour movement to allow all currents to argue for their point of view and for decisions to be mandatory on Labour If you would like to find out more about Socialist Action - or contribute to it - write to: Socialist Action, c/o 58 Auckland Road, Dist. Manager: Anne Williams Bus. Manager: Dave Macleod Typeset by Bread 'n Roses (TU) 01-485 4432 & Printed by Spider Web Offset (TU) 4 Rosemont Rd... IW3. A. D. Scott For a whole period - from the mid sixties to early seventies - the left in Britain grew up outside the labour movement. Its forces were based in the radical student layers drawn into politics around such issues as the anti-war movement to the fight for womens' rights.
pro-capitalist policies of Labour layers tend to have a one-sided and unbalanced view of the labour movement. Under-estimating the loyalty they felt that a mass socialist movelabour movement.
While it was correct to help pioneer the struggles launched by these layers - in the interests of all working people - the left began to 'adapt' to its sectarian schemes. This was reflected most clearly in groups like the SWP which openly proclaimed itself the 'revolutionary party' and counterposed itself to the Labour Party at a time when the Labour Party retained the mass allegiance of trade unionists.
CHANGE Locked within the sectarian schemes of its 'student' days, the left has therefore found itself unable to come to grips with the radicalisation opening up in the labour movement as a result of the Tories' onslaught on the unions. They have been unable to deal with a situation in which sectors of the unions play an increasingly decisive role not only in defending jobs and living standards but even the rights of oppressed layers (as when the TUC led the mass anti-Corrie rally last year.)
government.
Whilst instinctively hostile to the leaders like Wilson or Callaghan, these of working people to their organisations, ment could take place by by-passing the STRUGGLE only opposition to the present Tory left.
This turn towards the Labour Party is not accompanied, however, by support for Callaghan and his pro-right-wing policies. On the contrary, as layers of workers look towards their party, they seek to bring pressure on it to make it adopt policies in their interests. It is this pressure from the trade unions which explains the malo struggle opening up within the Labour Party at present and its major move towards the lett. The decisive victories chalked up acairst Cal'achan or tre 3195:97 of democracy at the last conterence, the identification of the Labour Party with the mass actions opening up (such as the anti-cuts rally last November or the anti-Corrie rally), the formation of left-wing groupings such as the LCC are all indications of the response to this mass pressure.
This process - which is only in its embryonic stage - will deepen in the years ahead as Thatcher's hammer blows escalate the friction between left and right on issues of policy and party democracy. The fight for a new leadership is being hammered out within the unions and Labour party as ever-wider layers of workers seek to make it adopt policies in their interest and a democratic mechanism for ensuring those policies are carried It is, ironically enough, this development which explains most clearly the crisis of the Its disunity, loss of members and confusion stems from the fact that its sectarian policies place them outside the mainstream of radicalisation and impotent to influence it.
Unlike in the late sixties and early seventies, it is no longer the left which launch the mass struggles. It is not the 'left' which launched the mass anti-cuts demonstration or the mass rally against Prior's Employment Bill. It is those organisations -under mass pressure from their members - which groups like the SWP wrote off a few years ago as 'living corpses'.
What is even more significant is that even on those 'social' issues such as women's rights or the anti-racist question, the labour movement is increasingly coming to play a central role as it becomes clear that, without its backing, democratic rights cannot be maintained (let alone extended).
BANKRUPT?
Far from learning from the process, many groups such as the SWP seem to be reaffirming their sectarian course. The major turn to the left in the Labour Party over the past few years - under mass pressure trom ine unions sitter off as me:.: retormist tau It is, of course, true that for many leading figures on the left in the Labour party, the opposi tion to Callaghan stems less trom considerations of socialism but pressure from the rank and file. It is also possibly true that many of them have shifted to the left in order to be in a better position to 'head-off' the radicalisation and direct it down safe 'parliamentary' channels.
This is not, however, the point.
For thousands of workers - both inside the Labour Party and the unions - the new Labour left, headed by Benn, represents a political alternative to Callaghan to which they are increasingly adapting. It is not the SWP but Tony Benn who is seen by these figures as the major force for change.
DENOUNCING?
Revealing the limitations of